A medium is one form of media e.g.
- a newspaper is a medium
- a newspaper, magazine and film are all media
Every medium has its own 'language' or combination of languages - that it uses to communicate meaning.
Media messages are constructed using creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication- whether newspapers, TV game shows or horror films - has its creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close ups etc.
In terms of producing a medium with a meaning, the institutions making the products encode the meanings of the product and the audience then decodes the meaning, this could result in the institution's meaning being different to the audiences perception of the media language.
Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language, especially the language of sounds and visuals which can reach beyond the rational to out deepest emotional core, increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helps us to be less susceptiblento manipulation.
According to theories CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE "We think only in signs" (1931)
Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavour, acts of objects, but no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.
"Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign"
Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as signifying something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. It is the meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of concerns of semiotics.
Linguist FERDINAND DE SASSURE (1974) offered a 'dyaic' of two-part model of the sign they defined.
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